PRISA Achieves Revenues of 1,350.77 Million Euros and EBITDA of 220.21 Million Euros

MADRID and NEW YORK, July 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

• Pay TV continued to improve the key performance indicators, and obtained an EBITDA of 77.69 million euros, reflecting an increase adjusted for nonrecurring items of 16.6%.
• Santillana increased its total revenues by 6.3%, showing a good start to the Education Campaign in Spain.
• In Latin America, revenues grew by 11.4% and currently account for 23% of the Group-wide total (20% in First Semester 2010).
• Digital increased operating revenues by 20.9% and the average number of unique visitors to the Group's sites has increased by 33.1% year on year.
• With negotiations with Trade Unions finalized and conditions agreed upon with regards to the efficiency plan, the total cost of the initiatives will be 114.7 million euros, including 6 million euros from initiatives in 2010. The payback is 1.4 years and the plan is expected to be completed by first quarter 2012.
• El Pais maintains strong circulation figures and has confirmed its position as the most widely read general paid newspaper with almost two million daily readers. SER Radio, with 4,038,000 listeners, has confirmed its absolute leadership position.

PRISA today announced its financial and operational results for the first six months ended June 30, 2011. In the period the Group achieved revenue of 1,350.77 million euros and EBITDA of 220.21 million euros (+3.6% growth ex non recurrent items).

The Chairman of the Executive committee of the Board and CEO Juan Luis Cebrian declared: "First half year results reflect the improving operating performance of our businesses, the positive impact of our drive to control costs, and the continued leadership position of PRISA in key segments."

"We have successfully completed negotiations related to the implementation of our efficiency plan and will accelerate it going forward. We also continue to advance in our discussions with banks on refinancing, which is expected to be completed in the short term," said Cebrian.

"Furthermore, we are advancing the transformation of our portfolio of assets by investing in digital capabilities across the Group, which will ensure our content meets changing consumer needs and provide a premium user experience."

"Our geographic footprint and exposure to attractive, fast-growing markets such as Latin America, coupled with our diversified mix of businesses, provide a solid platform to mitigate the impact of the current macroeconomic headwinds in Europe, particularly the challenging advertising market, and to harness sustainable quality growth in areas of opportunity."

H1 2011 highlights:

• Market conditions remain stable in all business areas except advertising and general publishing, which are still being affected by macroeconomic factors, especially in Spain and Portugal.
• In the Audiovisual area, revenue totaled 632.91 million euros, and adjusted EBITDA totaled 111.71 million euros. Adjusted EBITDA margins increased by almost 4 percentage points to 17.6%. At the end of H1, pay TV had 1.79 million subscribers, of which 23,106 correspond to wholesale distribution and DTT. The cancellation rate has continued to decrease to 14.2%. Subscribers to iPlus and Multi+ value-added services rose by more than 40% in H1.
• Revenue in the Education area was 319.01 million euros, up 12.1% in Latin America thanks to strong campaign performance, particularly in Brazil where revenues grew 12.7%. Adjusted EBITDA reached 79.97 million euros, a 7.0% improvement over H1 2010, while margins were maintained.
• Revenue in the Radio area stood at 185.05 million euros, down 6.3% year on year. Earnings in Spain were negatively impacted by the deterioration of Spain's advertising market, although this was offset by ongoing strong growth in Latin America, where revenue grew 8.5% compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA totaled 46.56 million euros (-9.5%) and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 25.2%.
• Revenue in Press was 204.16 million euros, reflecting virtually no change on last year's H1 figure. Adjusted EBITDA totaled 31.51 million euros, a 28.2% improvement over the same period last year, with an improvement of 3.5 pp in margins to 15.4%.
• The Digital area achieved a monthly average of 64.4 million unique visitors in the first half, a 33.1% increase compared to the same period last year, thanks to strong, double-digit growth recorded by As.com, El Pais.com and Cinco Dias.com.
• Advertising revenue totaled 315.87 million euros, down 7.8% from the same period the previous year due to the negative impact of deterioration in Spain's advertising market.

Consolidated earnings

The comparison of first-half earnings is affected by the fact that Cuatro ceased to be part of the consolidation in 2011 and by extraordinary items recorded under revenue and expenses in the same period both in 2011 and 2010. Therefore, to conduct a homogeneous comparison, we are presenting a pro forma profit and loss account showing the 2010 earnings of Cuatro as a discontinuing operation and we adjust the extraordinary items:

*Extraordinary items for revenue are recorded in the audiovisual area

**Extraordinary items for expenditures are recorded in all business units

PRISA is the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese-language media group in the fields of education, information and entertainment thanks to its multichannel offer of top quality products. Present in 22 countries, it reaches more than 50 million users through its global brands El Pais, 40 Principales, Santillana and Alfaguara. As the market and audience leader in general-interest press, free-to-view TV and pay TV, spoken-word and music radio, education and publishing, PRISA is one of the most profitable media groups in the world, with an extraordinarily broad range of assets.

SOURCE PRISA

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